Penny Dreadful: City of Angels casts Santa Muerte, several other characters

Showtime’s cult favorite horror series Penny Dreadful always loved smashing together different aspects of religion, myth and literature, which is how you get Dracula and Lucifer (both fallen angels) fighting over a woman who regularly gets possessed and counts Dr. Frankenstein and the Wolf-Man among her acquaintances. (Go watch Penny Dreadful. It all makes sense in context.) But, as The Wrap reports, City of Angels — an upcoming spinoff set in the 1930s — could get even weirder. Here’s Showtime’s official description:

"When a grisly murder shocks the city, Detective Tiago Vega is embroiled in an epic story that reflects the rich history of Los Angeles: from the building of the city’s first freeways and its deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, to the dangerous espionage actions of the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism. Before long, Tiago and his family are grappling with powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart."

We already know that Game of Thrones veteran Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) is in the cast. The show has now added six more actors: Adam Rodriguez, Thomas Kretschmann, Dominic Sherwood, Ethan Peck, Michael Gladis and Lorenza Izzo.

Mad Men veteran Gladis, who plays “ruthless politician” Charlton Townsend, is a regular. His name already makes him sound like a smarmy jerk, which sounds about right.

Izzo, meanwhile, is playing a recurring character: the Angel of Holy Death, a figure you might know better as Santa Muerte, whom The Huffington Post called “a folk saint of death.” A while back, VICE looked into the religious movement around her, noting that she oversees everything from watching over unborn children to meth deliveries, although her origins are unclear. Long story short: she’s not to be messed with, and could very well be one of the major supernatural players of the series. Showtime’s press release even calls her “pivotal.”

Per The Wrap, she is the “sister of the charismatic demoness, Magda (Dormer).” And hey, there’s Dormer’s character! Let’s face it: she’s perfect as a demoness. Could these sisters be among the “powerful forces” threatening to tear the Vega family apart?

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Here are the other character descriptions:

"Rodriguez will play Raul Vega, ‘the eldest son of the Vega family and a righteous union leader and advocate for his people. Wise to the ways of the world, Raul tries to be a father-figure to his brother Tiago (Zovatto).’Kretschmann will play Richard Goss, ‘an aristocratic and mysterious German architect with grand plans for the future of Los Angeles: a manipulative master builder with unsettling connections to City Hall.’Sherwood will play Kurt, ‘the chauffeur and bodyguard for Richard Goss (Kretschmann). There’s more to Kurt than meets the eye: an unexpected depth and surprising background.’Peck will play Herman Ackermann, ‘the charismatic second-in-command at the German American Bund. His aggressive politics, heated rhetoric, and personal magnetism inevitably create tension within the group and for the Bund’s leader, Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear).’"

Of these five, it’s Richard Goss and Kurt sound the most interesting. Goss’ “grand plans” for Los Angeles have us unsettled. Perhaps he’s building something like a pentagram into the foundation of the city? As for Kurt, he’s interesting because we don’t know much about him — “surprising background” are words we always like to hear when it comes to characters, especially on a show like this, where it could mean anything from “is immortal” to “is just really evil for reasons that are mostly mundane.”

Here’s hoping we get to see this all unfold sooner rather than later.

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